The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs “for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.”
The theoretical works and experimental discovery of the Higgs boson are among the most exciting developments in science for decades. Faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, have been involved with the ATLAS experiment since 1994. Their contributions include building and testing electronics for triggering the readout of the detector and developing software used for monitoring, visualizing, and calibrating those data, as well as performing their own analyses of the many physics questions that can be addressed with these data. The people involved in this effort at the University of Pittsburgh include Professors Joe Boudreau, Bill Cleland, James Mueller, Vittorio Paolone, and Vladimir Savinov, plus many graduate and undergraduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and staff.
Theoretical physicists Tao Han, Ayres Freitas, and Adam Leibovich have also worked on Higgs physics. Prior to the Higgs discovery, Tao Han and collaborators calculated the Higgs production rate at the LHC and helped develop the search strategies.
In honor of the Higgs boson discovery and the celebration of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics, the Dietrich School and the Department of Physics and Astronomy will host a free public lecture at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 30 in the University Club, Ballroom B. Professor James Mueller will describe the experimental evidence while Professor Tao Han, Director of the University of Pittsburgh's Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Center, will discuss the theoretical understanding of mass generation due to the Higgs mechanism.
A public reception will follow, where other theorists and members of the ATLAS effort will be available for informal discussion.